“Russian forests are toppling beneath the axe, the habitats of birds and beasts are dwindling, tens of thousands of trees are perishing, rivers are running shallow and drying up, gorgeous natural scenery is disappearing irretrievably, and all because lazy human beings can’t be bothered to bend down and pick up fuel from the earth. Am I right, madam? A person has to be an unreasoning barbarian to destroy what cannot be re-created. Human beings are endowed with reason and creative faculties in order to enhance what is given to them, but so far they have not created but destroyed. Forests are ever fewer and fewer, rivers dry up, wildlife is wiped out, the climate is spoiled, and every day the earth grows more impoverished and ugly.”
The Free Rider Problem, by Russell Hardin and Garrett Cullity.
How We Think About “Misinformation”
Our disinformation metaphors help us see new possibilities (how might we “clean up” disinformation, or treat “information disorder”?), but obscure others (if disinformation is a pollutant, why is it such a useful political tool? If disinformation is an attack, why does it seem so sociological?). Metaphors shape our discourses, ideologies and histories. – Hyperallergic
Seven Days To Go
October 23 – Letter To You – Bruce and The E Street Band’s first studio album since Born in the USA. The world’s biggest bar band live and raw – cut in four days – no overdubs. Records like they used to be made!
Here’s an edited, bootlegged version of Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt’s brilliant guide to the album.
- We’ve heard Letter To You – totally E Street – big organ, big piano intro, amazing sax from Clarence’s nephew Jake – a summation of Springsteen’s artistic output. A letter to the world where he “tried to summon all that my heart finds true”.
- We’ve heard Ghosts – I wrote about it a few days ago. An anthem to those who have died. “A beautiful part of living is what we’re left by the dead.” And this is revisited on the album’s final track – I’ll See You In My Dreams.
And what else is in store on October 23?
- Last Man Standing – an autobiographical nod of the head to his first breakthrough band The Castilles, where he is the last member alive.
- Three bootlegged but never released songs are ‘youthful ideas’ sung today with adult voices – crazy lyrics, insane fun – Song For Orphans, Janey Needs A Shooter, and the gleefully sacrilegious If I Was The Priest.
- Rainmaker – a big rocker. House Of A Thousand Guitars – one of Springsteen’s personal all-time favourites draws on the musical and spiritual world he’s been building for 50 years.
Could this be the last E-Street album? Maybe. Maybe not. The ‘I’m alive’ mantra from Ghosts implies there’s some road ahead.
And Thom Zimny’s movie of the Letter To You sessions will be out to accompany the album
"If you are reading this, you are very probably WEIRD," says Daniel Dennett. “But we are outliers on many psychological measures
HISTORY: A Shocking Find in a Neanderthal Cave in France: A rock structure, built deep underground, is one of the earliest hominin constructions ever found. “By measuring uranium levels on either side of the divide, the team could accurately tell when each stalagmite had been snapped off for construction. Their date? 176,500 years ago, give or take a few millennia.” Back when there wasn’t even any Hollywood.
“Outside Bruniquel Cave, the earliest, unambiguous human constructions are just 20,000 years old. Most of these are ruins—collapsed collections of mammoth bones and deer antlers. By comparison, the Bruniquel stalagmite rings are well-preserved and far more ancient.”
A La Niña winter is on the way for the US Ars Technica
Pakistan fails 6 of 27 obligations set by terror watchdog FATF, likely to stay on grey list The Print
Data analytics and targeted political messages began over 40 years before Facebook, shows this book Scroll
21 Masks That Make Great Halloween CostumesNew York
Crisis in the Galapagos: Chinese fishing fleets and COVID-19 threaten a natural wonder LATimes
Huge cat found etched into desert among Nazca Lines in Peru Guardian
